Pros
Teaching kids is very rewarding! Also, I have made many new friends, as teachers are often friendly and interesting people.
Cons
Teachers are spoken down to and constantly given new tasks (and last minute), many very pointless. The kids are constantly being pushed to test and retest which allows little time for actual learning. This is a normal part of the job, but there is an underlying shaming culture if a teacher asks for help or mentions that there are not enough resources or hours in the day. Special education teachers and all teachers really have to work outside of hours. Some of this may be normal, but the district could help by focusing on making teachers' lives easier. Micromanaging of SPED and Core teachers is suffocating. If you want lesson plans written a very specific way, then just give us the option of pre-written lessons from the district, and let us use our planning time for our many other duties. I love helping the kids, but definitely won't be returning to teaching, after this year with AISD. It is not worth the price of a person's sanity. Lastly, government jobs normally have very solid health plans and it's nice that they have a "free" version, but the options are abysmal and very limited and complicated, even among the ones that require employee contribution.
